Author: Roy Brunjes
Date: 15:00:02 05/19/02
I wonder how book learning is implemented in various commercial chess programs on the market. Has this been discussed before? If so, can someone point me to a link here at CCC about this topic? As an example: Program X plays the Ruy Lopez (as White) vs an opponent. Let's say that the game was played at Game in 30 minutes. The program ultimately loses the game after 75 moves. With book learning, will it refuse to open 1. e4 ever again (assuming the program is set to never repeat an opening line it loses with)? Does the time control of that game get noted in the book learning process? If a program is unable to win with a line at game in 30 minutes, who knows if it might do better at Game in 5 minutes with the same line, or game in 2 hours instead? With a defeat on its record with 1. e4 ... how does it know that the source of its defeat was, perhaps 2. Nf3 (after 1 ... e5 by Black). Or does it assume that the 22nd move (I'm pulling that number out of the air for this example), which is the last book move it has, is the offending move and the program will willingly repeat that line up to move 22 and then vary (either select another book move if there is one, or if there is not another book move at that point, just start thinking in hopes of finding a better move on its own)? And, if that deviation from book (i.e. avoiding the known "bad" 22nd move in its book) results in another defeat, does the program then mark the 21st move in its book as suspect -- and so on ... working its way back up toward 1. e4 only after a huge number of games is played (all of which in my contrived example) lead to losses for the program? Also, do programs learn differently if they are White with a given opening line vs if they are Black in the same opening line? Yes, I realize that there are probably many different ways to implement book learning, but hopefully my example if generic enough that someone can describe a plausible way to handle it, even if no specific programmer for any single commercial product responds to my questions. Thanks for your thoughts, Roy
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